Skater Jim Greco

If you think that pro skateboarder Jim Greco doesn’t give a fuck about anything, you’re just misunderstanding the man. “Sometimes you got to get into that mind-set where you don’t care if you die trying something,” says Greco. “Standing at the top of some huge stairs, you say, ‘Fuck it. Whatever happens, happens.’”
That die-trying attitude has defined Greco’s career. The 31-year-old skater is well-known for his years of hard partying (he’s been sober since 2002), his Johnny Thunders-as-skate-punk fashion sense, and for absolutely killing it when he skates, pulling his patented, gravity-defying ollie hammers. Nowadays he’s also a bona fide businessman as co-owner (along with partners and fellow pros Erik Ellington and Andrew Reynolds) of Baker Boys Distribution, which handles Deathwish Skateboards, Brigada Eyewear, and Shake Junt. But ask Greco what he really cares about, and he’ll just talk about skating. Well, skating and tattoos.
“Skating is really all I think about,” Greco says. “Since I was young, it’s always been about skating. It’s awesome to wake up every day looking forward to skating and doing something the punk-ass cops can’t do shit about.”
Given this sentiment, it isn’t surprising that Greco has “Fuck Cops” emblazoned in script across his chest, one of more than three dozen tattoos he’s amassed over the years. He can’t even recall where he got his first piece, a tattoo on the inside of his left arm from his days running with the Piss Drunx skate crew. “Somewhere in Orange County, in Huntington Beach, I think,” Greco says, before explaining his current approach to tattooing. “Now I go a period of time, for six months, and get a whole bunch, then nothing for a year or so.” During his ink binges, he typically taps either Dougie Mittz at Shamrock Social Club or Bill Brown at Sunset Strip Tattoo.
So what do Greco’s tattoos say about him? “That I skate. Everything I like or that I have an extreme love for, I tattoo on me,” he says. “Skating is a crime. Nothing is skate-proof. We’ll find a way to skate anything. We cut shit off. We use someone to distract a security guard while another hits a spot. We can make anything skateable. It’s what I live for.”